Meditation for Beginners

Poll

Our health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit – and the wellness of each part – and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. This principle of holistics recognises that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of meditation releases a new and positive life force – borne of inspiration, happiness, peace – into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health. With meditation even our sleep pattern can change – an improvement in quality, a likely reduction in quantity. More time and energy to live our lives!

Everything Starts Within

The way we feel and function in our outer life is determined to a very great extent by our inner life – our happiness, our confidence, our moods, our consciousness. We often have little power to change events in the outer world, but we can change the way we react to them. When we are happy and calm, difficulties and problems are easily coped with – when we are anxious or unhappy, the same difficulties can become nightmares. Our whole experience of life is coloured by our own consciousness – our life is the creation of our minds! Meditation balances the inner and outer worlds and brings out the bright colours of our nature – joyfulness, serenity, loving kindness, strength. These emerging positive qualities reshape our very experience of life, for everything starts within.

The writings of all the great sages and pathfinders over the centuries share many recurring ideas and truths – one of these is a belief in the wisdom and beauty of the human soul. Sri Chinmoy describes the soul as our 'inner pilot' – it is our highest Self, our truest Self, our in-house life guide. The more we listen to our soul, the more our outer life will flourish and prosper – and it is in the silence and stillness of meditation that the wisdom of the soul can most easily be felt and experienced. In everything of life – decision-making, problem solving, the search for fulfillment and purpose – the inner pilot is there to show us the way and we can learn to access it through our deepening practice.

The Soul's Special Promise

The great sages also tell us that each soul is unique and has something very special to accomplish on earth. It is by listening to our 'inner pilot' that we begin to feel and understand what our life's deeper purpose is and then our outer life becomes increasingly in harmony with this knowledge. The discovery and fulfillment of the soul's special promise brings us great happiness.

Power of mind

The many techniques employed in learning meditation share a common theme – harnessing and concentrating the power of the mind. By-products and benefits of this effort are numerous – an ability to focus and concentrate quickly, enhanced memory, a stillness in the meditating mind which enables us to access deeper, intuitive, creative and inspirational parts of our being. Power of Heart

Sri Chinmoy places great emphasis on the spiritual heart in our quest for happiness, for it houses many of our most powerful spiritual qualities. A widening, deepening capacity for love; compassion for others; a oneness with all of life; inner wisdom; a desireless happiness, like the fragrance of an inner flower, spreading out into our life – a treasure trove waiting to be discovered! Sunset over the oceanThe heart is an egoless, unhorizoned consciousness and living 'in the heart' is one of the secrets of real happiness. One of the principle forms of yoga – bhakti yoga – is centered in the spiritual heart as well. Here, the power of devotional love is directed out to God and sees divinity in all things.

A Peaceful Life

Meditation will make you a very peaceful person. This peace comes about through a growing self-acceptance and self-confidence, and through an inner poise that comes from a deeper part of our being. This peace is not something passive and fragile – it is very powerful and dynamic. This kind of inner peace will lift you above success, failure, the positives and negatives of life – it leaves in us an adamantine poise and a sense of calm detachment in the face of life's changing fortunes and tribulations. People who have developed inner peace are very powerful.

Awakening

Meditation is the awakening to our true nature, a spiritual path to enlightenment, self-realisation, oneness with God. This is why one should always feel gratitude for the impulse to meditate – we have consciously begun the great journey of awakening that lies at the very heart of all human life.

By Jogyata Dallas. Jogyata is a member of the Auckland Sri Chinmoy Centre and has been giving meditation classes in New Zealand for over 20 years. He has also written extensively on Meditation subjects